


Harry Potter and the Rising Darkness

by HPFandom_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Action/Adventure, Multi, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-12-02
Updated: 2004-12-02
Packaged: 2018-10-01 07:17:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10183823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HPFandom_archivist/pseuds/HPFandom_archivist
Summary: Harry Potter is in his sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and a darkness is desending. The propesised one still has lots to learn, but can he live up to the expectation placed upon him? Will he continue to let the Order run his life? Will he just stand idly by while the evilest wizard of the age causes destruction never before seen? Please R/R





	

**Author's Note:**

> Note from SeparatriX, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [HP Fandom](http://fanlore.org/wiki/HP_Fandom_\(archive\)), which was closed for health and financial reasons. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in August 2016. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [HP Fandom collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/hpfandom/profile).

**__**

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

**__**

Authors Note: I Hope that you all enjoy reading this story and I promise to try and keep my authors notes to a minimum. Please review and if you have any constructive criticism please let me know, it helps me iron out any problems. I have read many fanfics before I have started writing this and I am trying my best to keep this original. However due to the fact that there are so many other authors out there, there is bound to be parts that have been used before, I promise you that I am not doing this on purpose.

__

Anyway I’m sure you don’t want to listen to my ramblings so on with the story.

ENJOY!

****

Chapter I - At home with the Dursley’s

Privet Drive was a normal city street by anybody’s standards. Normal brick houses with perfectly manicured lawns, normal middle class residents with perfectly normal jobs and perfectly normal families with perfectly normal children. All in all it was perfectly normal.

At this point in time most of the inhabitants of Privet Drive could be found enjoying a hot summers day in their gardens. Some mowing the lawns, some reading books and others catching up with all the latest gossip. Petunia Dursley at number four was one of these people, she could be found with her long neck craned over the garden fence trying to spy on the neighbours. Her husband Vernon and son Dudley could be found loudly admiring the new company car that Vernon had received just the day before; so loudly in fact the other inhabitants of Privet Drive would do well not to hear them.

There was one teenage boy though, who didn’t want to be outside. This was because the weather was the complete opposite of his mood. Outside the weather bright, sunny and warm portrayed a mood of happiness, whereas this boy felt the complete opposite. He felt cold, self-loathing and certain emptiness; this was because of the boys recent past.

You see this boy wasn’t normal, not by anybody’s standards. This boy was Harry Potter. Harry was like any other teenage boy to look at; well except for the lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead. He was of normal height for somebody his age, rather skinny, but that wasn’t too uncommon, with black untidy hair that would never seem to lye flat.

There where numerous things that made Harry different to almost every other person in England, some people might even say these things where strange. For starters, Harry didn’t keep a cat or a dog for a pet, no Harry kept a pet owl, an owl by the name of Hedwig. If someone where to enter his bedroom at number four then they would see an assortment of strange goodies, books on Transfiguration, Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts, and one on a very weird sport called Quidditch, there was also several newspapers scattered around the room called the Dailey Prophet, and what was even stranger was that the pictures were moving! Another thing that made Harry different was his most prized possession, some people would think that Harry was insane if they ever found out; Harry’s most prized possession was a broomstick!

Yet these where only the small things that made Harry different. The biggest thing was a secret; a secret that only the people that reside at number four know. They had been keeping this secret for fifteen years now, and for eleven of those years even Harry didn’t know what this secret was. Harry’s Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon and cousin Dudley where so full of loathing because of this secret that they had spent the first eleven years of his life trying to squash it out of him. You see Harry was far from normal; Harry Potter was a wizard.

He wasn’t even normal by wizard standards though, and the strange thing was that it was the scar on his forehead that made him different. When Harry was just a one year old child he had saved the wizarding world from the most evil wizard ever to live, not that he could remember it though. This dark wizard went by the name of Voldemort, he had been reigning terror on the wizarding community for years, and many people believed him to be unstoppable. That was until one night when Voldemort went to Gordric’s Hollow, the Potter family home at the time, in order to kill Harry Potter. Voldemort had decided to do this because one of his faithful followers, more commonly known as death eaters, had heard the making of a prophesy. Little did Voldemort know that this follower hadn’t in fact heard the whole prophesy but merely the beginning. This prophesy predicted a boy that would have the power to vanquish the Dark Lord, that this boy would be born has the seventh month died, born to those that have thrice defied him. This left two people that could it could have referred to, Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter.

This left Voldemort with a choice, which boy should he choose, which boy should he kill. In the end he decided that it was Harry Potter that he was going to kill. He wasn’t prepared for what was going to happen upon his arrival at Gordric‘s Hollow that night however. He killed the boy’s parents with ease but when he turned his wand upon the mere child and uttered the unforgivable words of the killing curse, the curse rebounded upon himself. Harry Potter left uninjured, except for a small lightning bolt shaped cut on his forehead, and was heralded the savour of the wizarding world and given the name ‘the boy who lived‘.

Most people in the wizarding world believed that Voldemort had been destroyed that night and would never again return to cause the destruction that he had ever again. Little did they know that Voldemort was not killed on that faithful night at Gordrick’s Hollow, he had merely be rendered bodiless, a shadow of his former self. Now however Voldemort was back, once again he had restored his body, using Harry Potter’s blood, and had started his reign of terror all over again. He had one main target, the boy that had caused him to wait so long for him to take over the wizarding world, the boy that had defied Lord Voldemort more than any other person that had ever lived; ‘the boy that lived’ Harry Potter.

Harry at the moment was lying on his bed in the smallest bedroom of number four Privet Drive; he had done little else since he had returned from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry one week before, there was little else he felt like doing. He had eaten very little since his return; he just couldn’t bring himself to live normally knowing what he had caused a few weeks prior. It was his foolery that had cost him his godfather, his farther figure.

Last year Harry had been getting visions of the Department of Mysteries, a top secret department within the Ministry of Magic itself. These visions had been coming to Harry while he was asleep at night, and for most of the year he had no idea what they where about. The last vision however had ended with him seeing his godfather, Sirius Black, being tortured by non other than Lord Voldemort himself. Harry fearing for the life of his godfather rushed to his aide, however little did Harry know that this was all a trap, devised by Lord Voldemort to lure Harry to the place where recordings of prophesies are kept.

Only people who the prophesy referred too could remove the copy of it from the shelf in the Department of Mysteries. Lord Voldemort not wanting to expose himself to the world had been sending Harry these visions, through a connection forged between them on the day that he had tried to kill him. He was hoping that Harry would want to know the exact wording of the prophesy, but little did he know that Harry didn’t even know that a prophesy existed, he had never been told of its existance. So it was that he eventually lured him there with the vision of Sirius being tortured.

By the time that Harry and the friends that he took with him had figured out that it was a trap it was too late; death eaters where already chasing them through the Department of Mysteries as they frantically searched for a way out. Several of Harry’s friends had been struck down by curses and hexes before help arrived in the form of the Order of the Phoenix, a select group of people led by Dumbledore to lead the fight against Voldemort, a group that Sirius just so happened to belong in. A large battle ensued after there arrival, sadly a battle that Sirius would never return from. He had been cursed by his own cousin, Belatrix Lestrange, and fallen through a mysterious veil that effectively killed him instantly.

So it was now that Harry lay there with the weight of his own Godfathers death weighing down on his shoulders. This was not the only thing that was weighing him down at the moment though, ‘ _no there’s that damn prophesy as well’_ Harry thought bitterly.

Shortly after his return to Hogwarts Dumbledore had told Harry the exact wording of the prophesy, the recording that was kept at the Ministry had been broken, but the person to which the prophesy was made could remember it word for word; Profossor Dumbledore was this person. It was these words that Harry had spent the last week repeating over and over in his head.

__

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born has the seventh month dies… and the Dark Lord will mark him has his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not… and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives… the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born has the seventh month dies…

‘Not only do I have to carry the blame for Sirius’s death, but I have to carry the weight of the free world on my shoulders too‘. Harry was sinking more and more into a depression as these thoughts continued to flow through his mind. He had tried several times to occupy his mind with different things, but his thoughts always led him back to Sirius and the prophesy.

One thing that Harry found that he could concentrate on was looking up new spells and storing them in his mind for future use, this was possible because he was certain that he was not going to let his ability to protect himself result in the loss of another loved ones life. He had looked up many hexes and curses, as well as counter curses now from many of the books that he had accumulated over the past five years.

__

‘Why the hell does all this stuff have to happen to me? Why not someone else? Then at least I might have a chance at a normal life.’

‘But you’ve never been normal and you never will, not with that scar on you’re head.’

There was a debate going on in Harry’s thoughts now such as had happened many times since hearing what his future would entail.

__

‘But I never asked for any of this to happen.’

‘No but it has, and now you know what must be done.’

Harry sighed audibly as this last thought ran through his head. He knew perfectly well what had to done, but that didn’t make it any easier. It was the most disturbing part of the prophesy for Harry, ‘ _and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives‘,_ he hated what must be done and what his future would mean, ‘ _be murdered or be murderer‘._

It was late now and Harry could feel his subconscious trying to pull him in to sleep, Harry didn’t want to sleep though as he new that his dreams would be haunted by nightmares of Sirius blaming him for his death. Sure enough when Harry finally fell asleep one hour later the nightmares started at once.

__

Harry walked down a long corridor with bare stone wall, through a open door at the end and into a round room, one of the doors stood open and Harry walked through into a large sunken room. In the middle of the room was a large veil with what looked to be a black cloth blowing in a gentle breeze covering the inside. Harry slowly started making his way down the steps towards the lowest part of the room. Harry’s mind tried to stop him from moving but it was a losing battle, part of Harry new what was happening but he just couldn’t stop himself from walking further into the room. He came to a stop just in front of the veil, he could hear whispers coming from behind the black cloth but couldn’t make out what they where saying. It was then that a loud voice echoed through the room.

“Why did you kill me Harry?” came what was unmistakably the voice of Sirius Black, but there was a cold hard edge to his voice like he was talking to someone that he utterly despised.

“You took me from my parents Harry why?” came the equally loud and cold voice of Cedrick Diggory.

Harry was now on he knees begging the two people whose deaths he felt was his fault for forgiveness, but they weren’t listening. They carried on with their verbal tirade to an increasingly desperate Harry.

“Please I didn’t mean for you to die, I never wanted you to die, I love you Sirius, please forgive me” wailed Harry tears now steaming down his face.

“Never, you killed us”

“MURDERER!”

The last word was shouted so loud that it instantaneously woke Harry, breathing heavily with tears streaming down his face and cold sweat running down his forehead. This isn’t the first time that Harry has had to endure this terrible nightmare, no, it has been repeated every night since his godfather was lost.

He had tried with all his might since he had got home from Hogwarts to practice occlumacy, an obscure branch of magic about the defence of the mind from external penetration. He was succeeding to the extent that he had not received a vision from Voldemort since the night of the Ministry, he wasn‘t sure however if this was due to his skill at occlumacy or whether Voldemort was stopping the visions himself. He wanted to stop himself from dreaming however _‘that’s not what occlumacy’s for, it won’t work anyway’_ he reminded himself.

Taking a look out of the window Harry noticed that the sun was already starting to rise, he looked at the clock on his bedside table to see that the time was six o’clock. He had been asleep for five hours, _‘longest sleep I’ve had all summer’,_ this was true, the large bags under his eyes were the proof of that. Slowly Harry dragged himself out of bed and went about getting himself dressed, just as he had finished putting on the overly large jumper that had once belonged to his cousin Dudley his only summer friend came flying in through the open window.

“Hello Hedwig, did you have a good night hunting?”

Hedwig hooted and nuzzled her head against the side of Harry’s face from where she was perched on her shoulder. She was the only friend that Harry ever had during his long summers at the Dursley’s, they had never liked Harry and they saw no objections to telling him that. They only ever talked to him in raised voices to tell him to get his chores done or to tell him how much of a freak he was.

Surprisingly this summer they had been slightly more bearable than ever, true this may have something to do with the warning given to them by ’Mad Eye’ Moody of the Order of the Phoenix, but Harry couldn’t care less. At the end of his last school year at Kings Cross station Moody had warned the Dursley’s that if they mistreated Harry in any way or if the Order didn’t hear from him every three days then he would pay them a personal visit. The looks on their faces had been priceless when Moody showed them his electric blue magical eye whizzing about in is head, the object of his nickname. If Harry wasn’t feeling quite so depressed he would have laughed outright at the memory, I would have been priceless in different circumstances.

A loud grumbling from somewhere in the region of his stomach brought Harry back to the present, he hadn’t realised how hungry he’d been, he hadn’t been eating very well at all this summer, and whenever he did he had a hell of a time keeping it down. Quickly deciding that if he went for some breakfast now then he might just miss any kind ofconfrontation with the Dursley’s he crept silently out of his bed, down the stairs and into the meticulously clean kitchen.

After getting himself a bowl of cereal and sitting himself down at the kitchen table his mind was threatening to pull him once again into his memories, a loud thwack on the kitchen window however suddenly brought Harry back to the present. Whipping his wand out of his back pocket he stealthily made his way to the source of the noise, cautiously looking out of the window he could not see anything that could have been the source of the noise. Starting to fear the worst, there where millions of possibilities running through his mind, he was just contemplating it being a death eater under a invisibility cloak when he got the scare of his life.

A large object suddenly appeared from below the window, Harry was just about to voice the curse that had instinctively jumped to his brain when he realised that it was a large barn owl carrying the Daily Prophet.

“Jesus, you nearly scarred me half to death” Harry said to the bird as he opened the kitchen window.

The owl hooted once apologetically before holding out its leg so that Harry could retrieve the paper. The bird left as soon as the paper was retrieved obviously embarrassed, Harry watched it get smaller and smaller in the morning sky.

He returned to his bedroom a couple of minutes later having washing the bowl that he had used, _‘wouldn’t want Aunt Petunia to see that I have actually been feeding myself‘_ he mused. Any chance he may have had at having a good day however was shattered with one glance at the Headline on the paper, suddenly Harry wanted to return his cereal back to the box.

**__**

Luscious Malfoy under Imperious curse says Minister of Magic

By Augustus Angleton

The wizarding world was listening in closely yesterday evening when Death Eaters where sent to trial for crimes against the state, shocked was this reporter to hear amongst the names of those on trial, Mr Luscious Malfoy.

The wizarding world was in shock mere weeks ago when the Ministry of Magic was forced to accept the fact that ‘you-know-who’ has returned. Furthermore Death Eaters and ‘you-know-who’ managed to break into one of the Ministry of Magic’s most top secret departments. Some where even more shocked to hear that these Death Eater’s may well have succeeded in their task if it wasn’t for the brave actions of Harry Potter and a group of friends.

In a brief discussion with Minister Fudge shortly before the start of the trial; when asked if Luscious Malfoy was in fact a Death Eater he responded “I cannot believe that such an upstanding person in society such as Luscious would have acted like this if he was using his own mind, I believe that he must have been under the imperious curse once again”. Minister Fudge is of course referring to the first Dark War when Luscious Malfoy was found innocent of supporting the Dark Lord.

This reporter must wonder however if Minister Fudge is merely trying to cover his own back after being seen meeting with Mr Malfoy on more than one occasion.

For a more in depth look at the first Dark War - page three

For information on fighting imperious - page ten

Harry was completely gob smacked by how Fudge could be so blind as to not see what is right in front of his face. Malfoy had been caught that night, wearing Death Eater robes, mask, and as well as sporting the dark mark burnt into his arm. Harry was now starting to wonder just where the Minister of Magic’s loyalties really lay, was he really trying to help the magical community has he has so often spoke about to the press, or was he really just interested in the rich people who could help him stay in office. Whatever respect he had left for Fudge had sailed right out of the window.

After a few wisely chosen words strung together rather like they where never meant to be, Harry finally settled down into a seat at his desk, if he knew how he would have sent the man pretending to be the Minister of Magic the loudest howler ever created. He cheered himself up thinking about the look on Fudge’s face if he received a howler from Harry Potter telling him he was a pompous no good son of a… in the main atrium of the Ministry, with a large crowd to boot. He mentally told himself he must ask Mrs Weasley to tell him next time he met her ‘ _should send one to Dumbledore as well after all the secrets he’s been keeping from me.’_

Remembering the time that Mrs Weasley had sent Ron a howler after they had stolen Mr Weasley’s flying car to get to school in their second year brought a smile to Harry’s face, he had great friends. The smile slowly melted of his face however when he remembered about the prophesy, Harry had not responded to any of his summer mail because he was trying to distance himself from his friends, he didn’t want to put them in more danger than they currently where. He didn’t want to do it but that stupid prophesy marked him as a target until he could kill Voldemort, ‘ _that is if I can even do it‘,_ so anybody he was close too would automatically become a target too.

Harry knew that he would receive a letter from one of his friends this morning, they had started off writing every couple of days each, but as Harry had not been responding they started to write more frequently and now he received at least two letters a day. Turning his gaze to the window and settling himself to wait for the mail that would undoubtedly come, Harry wondered what new ways Ron and Hermoine had come up with the tell him that Sirius’s death was not his fault. He knew that he would not respond to these letters but he still felt good reading them, he was glad that his friends still thought about him.

Not too long later Harry saw a small dot starting to get bigger and bigger in the morning sky, it wasn’t too far away though, this owl was Ron’s and about the size of a tennis ball. So it was only about one minute later when the highly excitable bird started twittering wildly around his bedroom, so exited that it had delivered its letter to the right place that it totally forgot that it needed to give Harry the letter. It was ten minutes later, after several loud snores from Uncle Vernon and much running around that Harry was finally able to sit back down and read the letter.

__

Harry,

Can you believe that the Cannons have managed to get Walden to play seeker for them this year, I reckon we have a shot at the cup! Ginny is completely doing my head in, all she talks about is Dean this and Dean that, I swear to god I’m gonna rip his head off when a see him. Everything been going good here, mums making us all pack to go and stay at headquarters tonight for the rest of the holidays, she’s going to see Dumbledore to see when he will let you come to stay too. Hermoine goes on holiday today for two weeks then she’s coming here too. Anyway that’s about all I have to say but remember this Harry, it was not you fault that Sirius died you where just a pawn in ‘you know who’s’ chess game!

See you later Harry and take care.

Ron

Harry sat there for quite a while staring at the last line of Ron’s letter wondering just how Ron could say that this was not his fault, he was the one that had made Sirius come in the first place! If he hadn’t had to “play the hero” like Hermoine had said the Sirius would still be here.

After a bit of contemplation however Harry found that some doubts where creeping into his mind, _‘no, it was my fault’_ Harry reminded himself for what seemed like the hundredth time. Debates had started again in Harry’s head like had happened many other times during the holiday, this one was different however, he was not debating how guilty he should feel over Sirius’s death but whether it was his fault at all.

__

‘You didn’t know that it was a trap’

‘No but if I had practiced occlumacy then none of this would have happened’

‘But Snape never taught you properly so it wouldn’t have helped’

‘But I could have tried harder, I didn’t even try’

‘Dumbledore never told you why you had to learn it, I’m sure you would have tried harder if you knew why you had to do it’

‘It’s still partly my fault though’

‘Well yes, you didn’t have to go to the Departments of Mysteries, Hermoine did tell you that it could be a trap, but remember you thought that your godfather was being tortured’

‘You know this isn’t entirely my fault, Voldemort is more to blame than me, he was the one that tricked me into going there in the first place’

As this last thought went through his head Harry felt a considerable weight removed from his shoulders, and for the first time that summer he felt a genuine smile cross his face. He now knew the he wasn’t the sole person to blame for Sirius’s death, there where at least two others who the blame also lay with, Belatrix Lestrange and Voldemort. He swore right there and then that he would get his revenge, he would make them pay for taking the only father figure he ever known away from him, he would make the prophesy come true, he would kill Voldemort if he had to die trying.

So it was with a new conviction that Harry went about his day reading the books that he had accumulated, he still didn’t reply to Ron’s letter, he didn’t want to make them bigger targets than they already were. There was one part of Ron’s letter that kept going around in his head however, ‘ _mums going to see Dumbledore to see when you can come too‘,_ this was always followed by another thought, ‘ _over my dead body will I go back to that place, they must be seriously deranged if they think I would want to be there’_

One week had past and Harry had done little else other than study and walk around the neighbourhood, he still received letters from his friends daily but he still didn’t reply to them. He was starting to feel slightly guilty has he remembered the letter that Hermoine had written earlier that morning.

__

Harry,

I know that you must be feeling terrible at the moment but please start writing back. I know that we can help you but you have to let us. I don’t even know if you have been opening your post but if you have then please write back so I know that you are alright.

Love

Hermoine

His guilt didn’t last however as he reminded himself that he was doing them a favour by distancing himself from them. He still hadn’t received Ron’s letter that day and it was coming close to seven o’clock in the evening, he knew it would come though, Ron’s letters always came at different times, Harry thought it might have something to do with being at headquarters with ‘Mad Eye’ Moody constantly reminding him of ‘CONSTANT VIGILANCE!’.

Harry had been pounding the streets of Little Whinging extra hard in these last couple of days, it wasn’t that he wanted to walk however, it was because he knew that the Order would have posted guards around his house and he wanted to figure out what kind of schedule they worked on.

He had already figured out that Mundungus Fletcher watched him from twelve o’clock until three o’clock by the smell of stale tobacco that always lingered in the air whenever he was on guard, and that Tonks worked the three till six shift as he had heard her fall over and curse only yesterday. He needed to find out which shift Moody worked though, it was very important.

He was walking around the park at the moment and suddenly a great idea came to him, up ahead of him was a small wooden bridge that crossed the small stream then ran through the park. Harry crossed the bridge and focused is hearing, a smile slowly crept on to his face as he heard the familiar clunk of Moody’s leg on the wooden bridge, _‘so Moody starts at six, which should leave me plenty of time’._

Now that he had been successful in his mission Harry altered his course so the he was heading back to Privet Drive, he picked up his pace too, he had a lot to do before tomorrow. Harry didn’t like the fact that he had people watching him all the time, it was obvious to him that they had also been told not to let him know that they had been ordered to watch him, _‘just one more thing to add to the list of Dumbledore’s secrets’._

Harry arrived back on Privet Drive ten minutes later and started to make his way towards number four, he slowed down his pace again as the air was very fresh at this time of the evening and he wanted to breath it for a short while longer before he shut himself in his stuffy room again. It was upon entering the front garden that a familiar owl flew down onto Harry’s shoulder and started twittering loudly.

“Shut up Pig there muggles here!” Harry hissed at Ron’s small owl.

Harry quickly checked the surrounding area to make sure that he wasn’t being watched by any of the neighbours, glad that he wasn’t he threw Pig up into the air telling him to get away quickly before he was seen. He waited until Pig was out of sight and was sure that none of the muggles had seen the owl before tearing the letter open.

__

Harry,

Great news, mum just got back from Dumbledore and he said that you can come to headquarters tomorrow. He said that the advanced guard will pick you up but didn’t give a time, I guess you should pack today because they could come at anytime. Can’t wait to see ya mate, Hermoine gets here next week as well so we can spend most of the holiday together.

Ron

Harry’s good mood quickly soured and the look on his face would have scared of even Voldemort, there was no way that he was going back to that place. Striding determinably through the front door and slamming it behind him Harry started storming his way up the stairs towards his room, his Uncle Vernon’s booming voice however interrupted him while he was on only the fifth stair.

“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING BOY, YOU WILL RESPECT MY HOUSE AND…”

Choosing to ignore the human bulldozer that was his Uncle Harry turned his back on him and continued storming up the stairs. Upon entering his room the first thing he did was screw up the letter from Ron and throw it into the bin, he then flung open the lid of his school trunk and started unceremoniously throwing things onto the floor. Finally he found what he was looking for and grabbed a piece of parchments and a quill, the only letters he had sent this summer had been to the Order and they had been very short so he had been using bits of the same piece of parchment. He then sat himself at his desk and started writing very fast, that scary look on his face not faltering for one second.

“POTTER, GET BACK DOWN THESE STAIRS AND EXPLAIN YOURSELF…”

Mentally blocking out his Uncle he continued to write frantically on the parchment, there was no way he was going to Grimmauld Place again in his life. Once he had finished with the letter he called Hedwig down from her perch on the highest shelf of the room where she had retreated because of all the commotion and tied the letter to her leg.

“Alright girl get this letter to Dumbledore as soon as possible, and don’t wait for a reply” He told his faithful friend in a hurried whisper.

Quickly flying out of the window Hedwig went about delivering the letter, Harry watched her getting smaller and smaller in the darkening sky until he was brought out of his thoughts yet again by his uncles booming voice.

“GET DOWN THESE STAIRS THIS INSTANCE POTTER!”

Harry’s scary mask was replaced by a look of utter gloominess as he sighed and made his way to confront his uncle Vernon.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Miles away from Privet Drive in the gloomy back streets of London, Order of the Phoenix members and been called together for what was supposed to be an ordinary weekly meeting. Most of the more important business had been discussed and they where just about to rap up the last bit of business when a snowy white owl flew into the basement kitchen and started circling the room.

“That’s Harry’s owl, thank god he as finally contacted someone” came the obviously relieved voice of Molly Weasley.

Hedwig finally noticing the person she had been told to deliver the letter to suddenly dived across the room and let her letter drop to the feet of Albus Dumbledore. Those in the room that where expecting Hedwig to wait for a reply however where shocked when the bird let out a loud angry screech and darted out of the window.

“Well I certainly wasn’t expecting that” said Remus Lupin in a shocked tone.

The room quickly quietened down and all eyes turned to the headmaster of Hogwarts as he bent down to pick up the letter. Everybody looked on anxiously as the aged headmaster read through the letter, his face dropping with every line that he read, by the time that he had finished he looked older than anyone in the room had ever seen him.

“What’s wrong Albus? Nothing has happened to Harry has it?” Molly Weasley’s clearly worried voice rang out yet again around the room.

Albus Dumbledore sighed before he responded, a sight that not many in the room had seen him ever do.

“It is noting fatal Molly, however it is very worrying indeed” he said in a whisper that carried around the room “I do not know how to start explaining this, therefore I shall read this letter to all of you”

__

Dumbledore

Upon receiving a letter from Ron only several minutes ago it has come to my attention that you expect me to return to ‘that place’ tomorrow, however I feel it my duty to tell you that I will not be coming, so there is no point in sending anybody to pick me up. Once again it seems that you have taken MY right to make the choices in MY life, I will tell you now that you have made your last decision in my life and no longer will I jump to your every command. I must also tell you that after the last year you have successfully lost every ounce of trust that I had in you, you have had no right to keep the secrets and make the choices in my life that you have. I must make it clear that you are not my guardian and have no right to make decisions in MY life. I will also take this opportunity to tell you that I want nothing more to do with the Order of the Phoenix, no longer will I allow them to tell me what I can and can’t do in MY life. Do you really believe that I would put my welfare in the hands of an organisation that cannot protect even protect its own members. Please tell the rest of the Order that I do not blame them for the secrets that each and every one of them have kept from me, it is solely your fault for making them keep them secrets in the first place. If I was a member I would seriously be considering if I would want to be under your control at the moment, thank god I’m not. From now on I will be the person making the decisions in my life and if anybody has a problem with that then its just tough luck.

Harry Potter

PS. Please inform your ‘undercover’ guards that they couldn’t be more obvious if they where to shout out “We’re following you” at the top of their lungs, I could even tell you their schedule in case you ever forget.

Shocked silence was all that could be heard as Dumbledore finished reading the letter and retook his seat at the head of the table, all eyes where glued to the headmaster before the strict head of Gryffindor house, Professor McGonagall, broke the tense silence.

“Albus, surely Harry Potter didn’t write that letter. He would never talk to you like that”

“I am afraid Minerva, that Harry did indeed write this letter, as I believe you have all just witnessed that it was delivered by Harry’s owl. Hedwig is an extremely smart owl, she would never deliver a letter for anyone but Harry” replied Dumbledore in the same low whisper as before.

“Well, it appears that Potter’s head has finally inflated beyond repair” spat Harry’s least favourite teacher Professor Snape.

“Again I am afraid that Harry has a good reason to be angry with me, I must admit however I was not expecting him to be this angry” Dumbledore’s voice rose slightly after the accusation by Snape, and his blue eyes pierced Snape’s as if daring him to continue. Many people around the table had started murmuring to one another after Dumbledore’s latest revelation.

“And what would this good reason be?” demanded Molly Weasley, she had a habit of acting as if she was Harry’s mother.

“That, I cannot tell you” Dumbledore’s voice had a hint of finality in it that everybody knew not to argue with.

“So what do we do now?” asked Tonks, contributing for the first time since the whole fiasco had begun.

“I believe the we should respect Mr Potter’s decision for now and keep a closer watch on Privet Drive, still try to keep yourselves undercover because although Harry has figured out that you are there unfriendly eyes may not have.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back at Privet Drive Harry had returned to his bedroom after three quarters of an hour of uncle Vernon’s latest verbal tirade on respect and freaks, he was again rooting through his trunk retrieving everything that he may need for next day.

Finally when he had everything sorted Harry settled down to read yet another of the books that he had, this one was one that Sirius had given to him the year before.

Several hours later he decided that it was time to get to bed, so with one final look at his fathers invisibility cloak that he had retrieved from his trunk earlier he climbed into bed and was nearly instantaneously asleep.

Tomorrow was going to be a important day.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

****

Authors Note: So there’s the first chapter, I hope you all enjoyed it. Please review and tell me what you think. I thought I might also be important to tell you that this is probably going to be the shortest chapter of the story, so there should be plenty more reading material to come.

Thank you for reading


End file.
